Capstone Design Courses Managed in an MS Teams Framework

The paper will outline using Microsoft Teams to manage a Mechanical Engineering capstone program with 120 to 140 students and 25 to 30 projects. The MS Teams project site becomes the central repository for all the information regarding the student's work on their project as an individual and a team. A focus of the design of the project site has been an effort to effectively determine the individual contributions of a student versus the overall project outcomes. A simple MS Form is used for the students to enter their hours of effort for the course, but a written weekly journal is also required to justify the claimed amount of effort. These tools have provided data on student contributions that may have previously been inferred from interaction with the team or feedback from other team members. The tools have also confirmed when entire teams make limited time commitments to the project, reflecting reduced project outcomes. A physical project notebook is replaced by an electronic OneNote structure that collects all project and team information. The standard structure of the project sites allows the instructor, faculty mentors, and industrial sponsors to track progress and interact with the team without scheduling a formal meeting. The paper will outline the overall structure of the MS Teams project site and how the structure has evolved through use and student feedback.